Fishtailing tow vehicle?

Very true. Most utilty trailer those only have 2900 to 3500 pound rated
axles and a cord would overload it and the tires on it making it less
forgiving couple with a soft tow vehicle with soft springs and tires
spell trouble. Also I guess the previous poster has not cut and hauled
much wood to make the statement that it likely does not weigh over
3000lbs. It takes a serious P/U to haul a cord of it in the bed without
dragging its tail.

I know that feeling.... we took several wood cutting trips to the local forest
this year and a few times were what I would consider overloaded... Pine and fir
cut to 18" in 12" to 20" rounds, stacked a little above the top of the bed...
VERY wet wood, been downed by storms and under the snow for months..
I'm guessing that we had just a little over 1/4 of a cord, but it had to weigh
close to 800 or 900 pounds...
We didn't weigh it, but when a ram 1500 levels out and grips the road like a
sports car, you're overloaded.. lol
The wood cutting permits from the forestry service come with 4 stickers per cord
and encourage you to limit each load to 1/4 cord...
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing

I heated with wood for 10 years. Even given the table of weights, we still
don't know what wood he was hauling.
Even with an overloaded trailer, if the weight is properly distributed it'll
pull straight, but sluggishly.
I feel sorry for the rest of you if your half tonners weren't "serious"
enough to haul a cord of wood.
Maybe thats why I've always driven a Dodge, not just switched over in the
past decade.

My dad occaisionally hauled a full bush cord of wet hard maple in a
1/2 ton Ford. Had six plies and they had to be over 45psi. It DID
drag, but if loaded high at the front of the box, it was the whole
truck that squatted.
I occaiasionally hauled over a yard of crushed stone in the trailer (
back half of and old F100) behind my Aerostar.3200 lbs if I remember
correctly. Thats about 2700 lbs per yard. It was a balancing act
getting the tougue weight right. I remember( the first load)
shovelling some of the load forward to stop the swing - which had the
added advantage of getting the axle off the bump stops.
I also remember moving my tool box on my '57 Fargo Custom Express. I
had the roll cab and top box right back at the tailgate, and the truck
drove like it had sloppy linkage and power steering. Could spin the
steering wheel with one finger. Good thing I wasn't going far.

If two rics equal a cord, then the trailer was first of all, grossly
overloaded based upon the tire size. Assuming a cord is 128 cubic feet and
allowing for air space lets say that cuts it down to 100 cuubic feet of
actual wood. The density of oak/hickory varies from 40-55 lbs/cubic foot,
so for the sake of argument lets say the average would be 45 lbs/cu ft.
Therefore the weight of the load would be 4500lbs, plus the weight of the
trailer depending on construction would be ~400 lbs for a total combined
weight of 4900 lbs. The highest rating for a 13" tire that I can find in a
load/inflation chart is 1620 lbs x 2 for a max load of 3240 lbs.
Assuming the trailer is commercialy manufactured, the axle rating is
probably not much more that the tire rating especially since it was designed
for 13" wheels.
A lot of factors to consider but without having all the facts, I'd say
tongue weight is probably numero uno for the squirrelyness closely followed
by tire overloading and in this extreme example frame flexing is not out of
the question.
The truck is capable of towing the load, but the trailer is simply not up to
snuff.
Mike

forth
Had this happen to me in the 60's pulling a car trailer. About the scariest
ride I ever had. The trailer was making "S" skid marks and I about lost it
more than once. In my case it was a loose front end in the truck. I replaced
all the bad parts and had the front end aligned. Never a problem after that.
When it happened we tried to add weight to the truck by moving the car
forward on the trailer, then we unloaded the car and turned it around and
tied it as far back as we could. Must have mover that car 20 times, nothing
helped. The only way to stop the weaving was to stand on the gas. Going down
hills was murder.
About 10 years ago I saw this happen to a guy in a Wagoneer pulling a
camping trailer. He stopped and I offered to pull it with my truck. Hooked
it up and it was a solid as if it was on railroad tracks. I pulled it about
40 miles and then we hit I-10 and went different directions.
Al

The scariest tow I ever made was towing a 68 AMC fullsize wagon (engine
trouble) with a 54 Chevy for my older brother.
70 series radial tires on the wagon, a short tow bar and 6.70 X 15
bias-ply tires on the Chevy.
At the first turn, a 5 mph street corner, the wagon tried to push the
Chevy sideways. and that was to be the norm for the 60 mile haul back
home on all but the slightest curves.
Yes, the steering wheel was free to turn in the wagon.
Budd
Big Al wrote:

Improper weight distribution. You should have about 10% of the weight on the
tongue. What that means is if the trailer and cargo weigh 2,000#, then the
tongue
weight should be 200#.
With the kind of hauling you're doing, that's pretty tough to measure or
estimate. So do this. With the truck on an even keel, measure the height of
the
bumper. Now find somebody who weighs about 200#, and have them stand on the
trailer
hitch ball. Now measure the height of the bumper. That's how much the the rear
end
sags with a 200 pound tongue weight (On my truck it's about 1.5"). Now you can
guestimate tongue weight by measuring the bumper.

The worst I've seen was as a police officer a few years ago. A guy was
going on vacation driving a brand new Dodge Ram pulling a popup camper
pulling a boat behind it. Well the boat trailer started to fishtail and
that's all she wrote. Highway was shut down for hours while I worked
this wreck. His beautiful new boat and camper were ruined as well as his
brand new Ram. I felt so sorry for the guy.
Bob

I heated with wood for around 20 years and have hauled my share. It
starts out weighing somewhere over 3,000 pounds after you cut and load
it. But by the time you haul it home it will have gained at least 100%
more weight depending on how far it is to the wood pile. I think that
damed stuff soaks up all the energy out of your back and arms, gaining
weight in leaps and bounds.
I had a camper one time that had the fresh water tank at the back under
the bed. After I loaded the trailer the way I wanted it, towing was nice
and stable, until I would get close to the destination. You see I was
smart enough to know that water weighed a considerable amount and there
was no need to haul it all the way across country. But when I made my
water stop and filled the tank it made the trailer lighter on the tung
and would fish tail after you got up around 45 or 50.
I would think his trailer was a toy hauler type with the single axle
near the center as they sometimes are. If he loaded it evenly it would
not have enough weight on the tung, that should be around 12 to 15 % of
the overall weight to give a stable pull.

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